CFL running out of time Clock ticking on decision to kick off 2020 season or give it the boot By: Jeff Hamilton Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Jun. 5, 2020 Last Modified: 10:17 PM CDT Friday, Jun. 5, 2020 Updates

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/06/2020 (1968 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The clock is ticking on the CFL and, quite frankly, the league is running out of time.

As all professional sports leagues work on return-to-play plans, few face the kind of obstacles plaguing the CFL. With fewer resources than the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL — all of which have publicly submitted some semblance of a plan to return in 2020 — the CFL has been mostly silent with how it hopes to navigate through a new normal owing to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The CFL doesn’t generate nearly the same amount of revenue as those other leagues, so there’s reason to believe the league’s lack of a public plan is because it needs to be extra diligent when spending its money. Simply put, if it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense and there’s no point in teasing a fan base hungry for three-down football before you know it’s even possible.

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“I have been asked by the board of governors to frame this in a way that will make sense and that is at some point you’ll have to make a decision,” CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie told the Free Press in a phone interview this week. “But what has been obvious to me in the pursuit of that framing is that it’s easier said than done.”

Ambrosie added: “On the one hand, you have the obvious, enormous desire to play and that is shared equally across the league. On the other hand, some of the health-care restrictions would have to be lifted and that, like other things, is a moving target.”

Although Ambrosie said he preferred to remain optimistic on the matter, his reality is daunting: he’s going to eventually have to make a decision as to whether or not it’s even worth playing a season this year.

How much runway does Ambrosie have?

“On the one hand, you have the obvious, enormous desire to play and that is shared equally across the league. On the other hand, some of the health-care restrictions would have to be lifted and that, like other things, is a moving target.” – CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie

To find a rather simplified answer to this question — and without taking into consideration every major issue the CFL is facing with the pandemic, or, as Ambrosie put it, with the number of “moving targets” — one just has to work backwards on the league’s current timeline.

With a start date no earlier than the first weekend of September and a preferred Grey Cup date being the third Sunday of November, the CFL is working with 13 weeks of time to put on a minimum of an eight-game season plus playoffs. The league could go a little later into the calendar if its further delayed in September — but not much.

Where it gets tricky is what needs to happen before the season starts.

Usually, training camps last three weeks, but because of the unprecedented times, the CFL and its players are willing to reduce the length of training camp to better accommodate a shortened season. A minimum that both the players and league would agree on would be a 10-day camp, with a preferred length of two full weeks.

Even this has raised concerns among players, many of whom have had their off-season workout plans disrupted due to the closing of most training facilities and gyms.

Given that, camps would have to start some time near mid-to-late August.

Then there’s the issue of getting players to their respective teams. As it currently stands, anyone arriving from outside the country — a significant amount of players live in the U.S., where COVID-19 has run rampant in some places — or even outside the province, are required to self-quarantine for 14 days. Add those two weeks to the mix and it looks like the latest a decision could be made on whether or not to go ahead with a season is early August.

“If we get to a point where we think there’s a way to do this, if we think there’s a business model to do this, then we marry all the work that’s going on by our medical committee and the players come to the table,” Ambrosie said. “If we now think we can do this, if we know what’s on the other side of the hill, if we’ve done all of our work to set ourselves up for a bright future, now you have to look at what’s it going to be like? What would the safety and health and testing protocols, which are all being talked about — the players are talking about them and we’re talking about them — look like? Then at some point we’re going to have to look each other in the eyes and say, ‘Look, do we want to do this?'”

“If we get to a point where we think there’s a way to do this, if we think there’s a business model to do this, then we marry all the work that’s going on by our medical committee and the players come to the table.” – Randy Ambrosie

With everything that’s going on, it can be argued that Ambrosie’s greatest challenge, at least when it comes to the time crunch he’s currently under, is getting everyone on the same page. That includes, of course, all nine teams, as well as the players.

According to Sportsnet’s Arash Madani, there are two unnamed privately run teams that aren’t sold on playing a 2020 season. As for the players, the overwhelming consensus is they want to play this year but major questions regarding safety and compensation are still at the forefront of conversations.

“Ideally, you want to get everyone aligned and I put that responsibility on myself to find a way to create that alignment with them,” Ambrosie said. “Is this going to be perfect? I don’t know. But I don’t let that distract me from the real responsibility of providing the kind leadership I was hired to provide and that is set a vision, set a strategy to go with that vision and describe all of the tactics and pieces that have to fit together to take us to where we want to go.”

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What Ambrosie is trying to do now is weigh whether the financial side works with the safety requirements needed to combat COVID-19. He knows the number of fans attending games will likely be limited this year, if at all, and that’s a major shot to the bottom line for the gate-driven CFL. He also has to consider what effects the coronavirus might have on the 2021 campaign and beyond.

So, with everything considered, what is the best-case scenario right now?

The best-case scenario might just be the worst-case, and that would include pulling the plug on the 2020 campaign and instead focusing on getting the CFL to a better place for years to come. Because, as Ambrosie has stated, there are many moving pieces and many issues still to hash out. And while the CFL navigates through these unchartered waters, it also continues to rack up major expenses without generating singificant revenue in return.

How can a league that lost $20 million in 2019 stand to survive a year with fewer games, little to no fans and the added costs of keeping everyone safe?

Ambrosie might have two more months to make a decision, but the longer he waits the worse things could get. And that’s not something worth waiting for.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.